Act on Insolvency and Its Resolution (Insolvenční zákon)

The English version of the new Insolvency Act being presented to the public is not a self-serving enterprise. The new law changes the existing and established paradigms of bankruptcy law, and helps blaze a path for a future insolvency law beyond the year 2000. The existing law that is in principle built on the 1931 tradition and that follows a formal procedural and legal concept, is being replaced with a new concept that reflects the fundamentals of business to a greater degree. Therefore, the new Insolvency Act, Act No. 182/2006 Coll., is not a mere derivative of the current status but rather a true philosophical and substantive change that actually shares only the parties to the proceeding and one of the insolvency resolution methods – bankruptcy - with the law applicable until now. In the future, instead of a proceeding fully controlled by a court and its “extended arm“ – a bankruptcy trustee – emphasis will be placed on the special situation of management of an economically distressed business. The new law does not aim to dissolve such a distressed business: instead, it will strive to find its going concern value and to restructure and thus preserve the business – to that end, in addition to bankruptcy coupled with liquidation, the law offers reorganization as a complicated but revitalizing process. The effort to revitalize the society does not apply only to businesses. The law also aims to help excessively indebted households which can avail themselves of the debt discharge process and maintain a “clean slate“ for the future as law-abiding debtors (consumer bankruptcy).